Back from My Knitting Vacation

I'm pretty much back from my self-imposed knitting vacation of last week. The overall week was ever-so-slightly trying.

I got plenty of spinning done in the evenings, and I managed to do one fiber-related craft item that had been sitting in my Stash for quite some time. So I pulled it out to work on it, while I couldn't knit.

I had a kit from Lorna's Wool of these adorable felted sheep. The kit came with a felted egg, needles, some pretty silver & white locks, and some colored wool (fit only for felting as some of it was matted and there was lots of VM in it).

The instructions were pretty clear, and it took a bit to work the legs & head, but once I got the hang of it, it was relatively simple. However, I'm not quite sure felting is for "me", per se. I kept looking at all of the wool and thinking I could spin it (neps, matts, and all)....although I knew it'd be nasty to spin.

I guess I'm just not a felter at heart. Although I do love these sheep.

The black sheep is "Henry"
The white sheep is "Henrietta"

Don't ask me why I named those sheep in that fashion. They just "looked" like a Henry and Henrietta.

Missing My Knitting...

This week without knitting is going well, but I miss it rather horribly. Spinning some fine cormo on Nona is helping ease some of the evening anxiety but...it's not a substitute, esp. when it's a forced substitute.

--> This past Monday, I walked out of the house without a knitting project in my bag. I felt naked.

--> I keep thinking about the knitting projects that I really should be working on in to finish.

--> I hunted around looking for my crochet motif book because I was getting somewhat desperate to have fiber in my hands. DH laughed at me last night. Unfortunately, I had absolutely no yarn with witch to crochet. Everything is pretty much earmarked for a knitting project. ARGH.

--> I'm missing my daily lunch knitting, although I did bring one of my not-yet-used spindle.

I get to see my favorite doctor this evening, and I have two more days of self-imposed non-knitting. Then I can go back in....slowly...with lots of breaks. Because I really don't want to not knit for another extended period of time.

Vacation from Knitting

Sadly, I have to take a whole week's vacation from knitting. All of last week, every morning I would awaken with pain in the knuckle of my left middle finger and limited movement.

Ibuprofen cream did wonders for it, and I wasn't sure what was causing it. In previous weeks, I had this issue, but it was an occasional twinge -- and I thought perhaps I had strained it or whatnought.

But after a relatively intense knitting period of socks just before bed time (on Size 2 needles) left me wondering. Maybe it was because I started using smaller & smaller needles? Maybe my grip is too tight? (I knit continental, and my middle finger helps hold the needle in place, while the left index finger holds the yarn.

The next day, I opted to not work on those socks, but work on the sleeves of my Ribby Cardy (size 6 needles). Again, the pain was there in the morning, but not as bad.

So, I'm going to be taking a week off of knitting to let my finger rest, and see if it still bothers me...or if it's something else. (DH wonders how I'm going to survive the week....)

So, in leiu of knitting in the evenings, I shall be spinning, because I really don't use that finger for it.

School of Dead Fish

Several months ago, I made a Dead Fish Hat for my nephew's birthday. The rest of his family (all 4 of them) loved it...so much so that they asked if they could ALL have hats for the holidays.

So, I took down their favorite color combinations, ordered the yarn, and started knitting them...slowly. I have 2 out of the 4 hats completed, and I'm currently knitting the 3rd.

Forgetfulness....

This morning, I packed up to go to work, and grabbed an UFO that needed finishing. I figured that I'd finish it at lunch as the last bits of it are "easy" and totally do-able during lunchtime. I grabbed my toolkit bag, with my crochet hooks so I could pick up the necessary stitches to finish. I even remembered to grab the pattern.

See anything missing? I didn't.....

Then, lunchtime comes around, and I'm really looking forward to finishing the UFO because, well, it's been languishing. I pull it out...and realize that I completely...
left...
the...
needles...
at...
home....

*facepalm*

I had taken them out of the bag to finish another project that needed the bigger needle size.

Luckily, I had my "to-go" project in my bag as well...basically my emergency portable project, so I wasn't totally without knitting...but oy!

A bit of Knitting & Spinning

Yesterday, I got an itch to get really going on a project, so I spent part of last night finishing up the body of my Ribby cardigan (knitted in the round). Then I steeked it, and started both of the sleeves in the round (magic loop). All the while, getting caught up with various sci-fi/fantasy podcasts.

This project has taken *forever* to finish as I knit primarily at lunchtime, but I can actually see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. (I started on July 4th, 2010!!!!)

In spinning news, I finished up 4 oz of a purple tweed merino fiber, 2-plied it, which was then washed, thwacked, snapped, and hung to dry.

I sampled a 3-ply and 4-ply yarn, but it was too much for the project I want to knit with it (the Citron shawl from Knitty.com). So, I went with a 2-ply that landed me with a heavy-ish fingering weight yarn. Next time, I think I will sample more than I did before and actually knit up swatches of the finished yarn, but I was far too lazy to actually do that this time around.

It's a lovely lovely yarn with a really nice hand. Four ounces landed me about 400 yards. I just now have to finish spinning the other 4 oz of said purple tweed fiber.

And eventually, I'll get around to knitting the Citron...right after I work through the rest of my queue on Ravelry. *sigh*

Too Hot to Knit

Where I live, the weather is pretty moderate. We occassionally have very hot days but they are few and far between. Because of the temperate weather, I really don't have "summer knitting" versus "winter knitting" -- although I will not do a huge blanket in the middle of summer.

Yesterday was one of those few & far between days. The high was supposed to be 107 deg F. And it was never going to get any cooler than 75.

I picked up my Ribby Cardi that I had been working on, and managed to get through two rows, before setting it back down in disgust because...It Was Too Damn Hot To Knit.

Then when the evening rolled around, I simply sat & spun, while watching movies. This was much easier in the heat, then trying to knit anything.

Beading

So, instead of fiber, I'm posting about beads today.

A good friend of mine is a wonderful beader; she makes lovely jewelry. While I have beaded before in the past, it has been very minor and very very simple -- mostly sewing beading into costume pieces. As I had helped her how to improve her sewing, she was going to teach me the very basics of beading.

Several months previously, she had taken me to a bead show where I had made some purchases that she was going to help me put together, which we did this past weekend.

So, I put all of the designs together, and she helped me do all of the finishing work... like how to crimp, how to ensure there's enough flexibility, how/when to use adjustable chains, etc. She had many of the tools required for different jobs.

I made 5 necklaces & 1 bracelet that night. (The matching bracelet/necklace isn't shown.)

----
Medusa Necklace

16" beaded Medusa necklace -- beads: bloodstone, silver, and czech beads -- Medusa piece from Green Girl Designs

----
Shell & Square Necklace

16" Shell & Square Necklace -- all glass beads

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Fall Leaf Necklace

16" beaded necklace: Size 6 red czech glass, goldish spacers, glass leaf beads, green/red size 7 beads.

----
Red Jade

20" necklace -- red jade with phoenix/dragon pendant, 5mm garnet stones, 4.8 gold-ish spacer beads. This has an adjustable chain so I can make it longer or slightly shorter.

Drive By Post

I'm making progress on my Ribby Cardi. I've finally gotten to the armhole shaping as of last night! Yaay!

I still have 5 inches to go before I can start the neck shaping. At this rate, I just might finish this cardigan before the holidays.

Although, truth be told, I could use it NOW. Our office is freezing!

Keep on Spinning

As noted previously, I've been spinning more than I have been knitting. I'm currently on the 4th ounce of the 8oz of the Ashland Bay top (garnet).

Here's a quickie iPhone photo of one of the quills containing 1 oz of fiber.

I'm looking at sampling for a 3-ply and a 4-ply, although I suspect the 3-ply might be better. I'll finish up the other 4 ounces first before I swatch.

Blackhole of Knitting

Lately, I haven't had much time to knit, mostly because I've been spinning, and what I have been knitting has been one "blackhole" -- no matter how much knitting you do, you don't seem to be making any progress whatsoever.

I'm still ploughing through my Ribby Cardi by Bonne Marie Burns. I'm still working on the body (mostly during lunchtime). Only July 8th, I was 5 inches into the body sweater. Today, a month later, I'm 12.5" into the body of the sweater.

This is 8.5 inches more in 30 days. This roughly translates into .2833333 inches per day, which is a sad, sad, sad state of affairs. I still love the pattern and I still love the color of the yarn....however, I am going to inch my way through this sweater.

However, as I've mentioned, I have been spinning. I am going through my Stash, and am currently working on 8 oz of some Ashland Bay Top that I started right after the Tour de Fleece (2010)

I've got 4 ounces finished, which pleases me to no end.

And, here's the final barber pole skein from Tour de Fleece. I apologize for the crappy photo. I haven't had a chance to take a decent one as of yet.

~200 yards of a heavy fingering weight, 2-ply

Handpun vs. Commercial Yarn

I was looking at my Ravelry Stash page.

Out of 66 Stashed Yarns, 28 are handspun.
Now, granted, that I haven't listed some of my Stash yet (both handspun & commercial) AND I haven't quite spun all of my fiber (that is listed), but I like the direction in which my Stash is moving.

Now, I just have to start knitting THROUGH my Stash. LOL

The Dye Pot

This past weekend, I got out the dye pot and worked on about 8 oz white merino I had laying about. The first batch was a green/blue/brown combination. It didn't quite work out how I wanted, but it still looks quite nice.

4 oz of merino

I dyed the other half a motley of purple & blues. Although I think I might have felted parts of it slightly. *sigh*. I think I might ply the two together, and call it "Lilac Bush".

Tour de Fleece: Finale

My actual Tour de Fleece project (core-spinning) was done with plenty of time left over. So I added a secondary project (Stash Busting) to get through about 8oz of rainbow colored merino for the last half of the Tour.

I broke up the merino into .5 oz bumps, spun them up all the same (semi-worseted) then finished them differently so I could see what each would look like: Navajo plied, singles, 2ply.

I've finished (washed/thwacked) with the Navajo plied & the singles (which were washed & fulled for added strength. However, I still need to finish the second bobbin of the 2ply (I'm 3 bumps away from finishing it). BUT since I got my primary project finished, anything additional was gravy.

Here's a photo summary:

PRIMARY PROJECT

5 bobbins of this (probably 400 yards of singles at least):

To 100 yards of coiled & bobbled yarn:

SECONDARY PROJECT
(80% done)

From 8oz of colored merino:

To Navajo plied

2oz. 182 yards, heavy fingering weight, Navajo plied

and Single plied

Languishing Knitting

I haven't gotten much knitting done as of late, except during lunch breaks at work, because I've been spinning so much for Tour de Fleece. I feel like my Ribby Cardi is in never-ending cycle. I'll knit a few rounds, but see limited progress.

For now, I've got spinning on the brain. I'm thinking about all those yummy fibers in my Stash(TM) and the need to spin them all up!

Some of the Fibers in my Stash

Tour de Fleece: Picked Project

I didn't get much spinning done this past weekend, because we went out of town. However, I did spend extra time during the week spinning, as well as bringing my spindles with me to keep on spinning my wheels.

When I got back, I spent some time Navajo plying the resulting singles so I could preserve the long 8 color repeats.

2oz. 182 yards, heavy fingering weight, Navajo plied

While I was plying, DH looked over and asked me why I was running my yarn back through the wheel. He wanted to know if I was adding or removing twist. I told him I was plying. He said, "But there's only one bobbin."

I had to explain to him how to Navajo plied -- at least he's learning. :-)

Tour de Fleece: July 15th

My secondary project is going along well enough.

I'm currently on the mustard colored merino (having started on the orange-yellow and going counter-clockwise).

Each of the bumps was broken into quarters (1/4th). I'm still on the first quarter of each color.

Tour de Fleece

This past weekend, I finished up the last skein of the core ply yarn. I think I have about ~100 yards or so of coiled yarn.

That brown yarn? That's sock yarn to give you an idea.

Close-up -- Coils

To give you an idea, there 5 bobbins of this fiber.

I really really enjoyed spinning this up, but it took *forever* to finish ply a single bobbin. And I had some hiccups with my core snapping.

However, I solved the problem by winding some of the core thread onto a bobbin and letting it dangle while I spun. The bobbin then "unspun" any twist I was adding. It was a nifty way to keep the core from acquiring too much additional twist while spinning.

Now that I've finished the primary project, I've movedonto my secondary project, and spinning the following into to self-striping yarn. Each bump is 1oz of merino fiber. This is the order I am spinning the fiber (in clockwise order starting with the yellow at "noon").

I've broken out each bump into quarters (.25 oz per bump)

I was *originally* planning on core spinning it, but after I laid out all of the fiber in the order I wanted, it just called out to be a striped yarn.

I will navajo-ply it to maintain color-consistency.

(Previous Tour-de-Fleece posts)

When Knitting Attacks: Sweater

I finished gauge swatching for the Ribby Cardy by Bon Marie Burns (Ravelry link).

And surprisingly, I've gotten gauge on the first set of needles I've tried (US 6). O also tried a swatch at US 5s and US6s but the blocking/washing still puts me at correct gauge at US6s.

But, better safe than sorry, yes? For big things like sweaters, where it might take me a month to complete, I'll definitely swatch religiously. On smaller projects, like hats & socks -- not so much.

Luckily, the swatch went without a hitch. HOWEVER, the actual knitting has been problematic at best.

I cast on the sweater, and am 5 inches into it since the July 4th weekend, and it's been slow going due to various errors (on my part, not the pattern). Why? Because I rewrote the pattern to do it in-the-round (about 2 weeks ago), and I was second-guessing myself, AND I'm not reading my own damn pattern notes OR I put in not-so-detailed notes to my modifications. Consequently, thus far, I've had to:

1) begin 2x over, because I couldn't count correctly, which lead to the incorrect number of stitches.

2) frog a few rounds, because, apparently, I can't keep read a pattern. (Several times over.

3) I had to drop down more than a few stitches, because I'd switch a purl to a knit or a knit to a purl....multiple times over...and not notice until a few rounds later.

I'm only FIVE INCHES and it's been nearly a WEEK since I started.

Tour de Fleece: Day 5 - Photo Update

Here's a photo update of everything up to Day 5.

Pre- Tour de Fleece:

I started with this fiber (CVM, llama, silk)

that became these singles:

And I took this yarn (Jagger Main line Merino Cream)

And unspun some of the twist. (Note to self: I need to unspin a LOT OF the twist for future use).

Tour de Fleece
For Tour de Fleece, I've been plying the Jagger with the above singles to produce this:

and this:

I'm still working on the last two bobbins. And I have to say, I'm kinda having fun with core plying. It is a form of "potato-chip" spinning; I can't seem to stop.


(Previous Tour de Fleece posts can be found at this link.)